I got one of those mini hoop and plastic "basketball" sets recently. I am trying to teach Thor how to do a "lay up", but it's turning out to be pretty hard.
First, even though the ball is only 4" across and a little saggy, it's too big for Thor to fit in his mouth. I thought about making a little hole in it and letting more of the air out, but I'm hoping I can think of a way around that. I'm wondering if maybe I can find an even smaller basketball, or even teach Thor to hold it in his paws? He can stand on his back legs for quite a while, but I don't know if he can hold anything in his front paws during. That might be too ambitious.
Second, I'm wondering how Thor should "dribble" to the basket. Should I just get a ball small enough for him to carry in his mouth, or should he push it with his nose along the ground? Or kick it?
Third, it's turning out to be way harder to even get the basics of it together. He knows Take It, Hold It and Drop It, so I thought I would just teach him to Take It over the hoop, and then Drop It. Well, I never realized that he doesn't associate Hold It with moving. As soon as I signal to him to move, he drops the prop. What's even weirder is that when we play Fetch, I always have him drop the ball into my hand -- but I always put my hand down right in front of me. If it's even slightly off to the side, he just drops it.
Fourth, it turns out that he is scared of the basket, or more precisely, things dropping through it.
I've positioned it five inches off the ground for now. I tried balancing a toy right on the edge and having him Touch it so it falls through the basket. It took every smidgen of courage he had and stewed chicken to get him to even try touching it. It was sort of hilarious, actually. He could smell the chicken, and he would approach the basket, back away, whimper, bark, lie down, approach the basket, bark again, etc etc. He was definitely braver by the end, but I think he outsmarted me, because no matter how precariously I balanced the toy, he stopped knocking it in after the first couple times. I don't know how he did it, but he figured out how to nose the toy without actually disturbing it in the slightest. I treated him anyway because it was clearly very difficult for him. Normally I don't push him that far out of his comfort zone.
It kind of reminds me of trying to teach him to use a potty bell. I used the bell hop bell, and I used the standard method to teacm him out to use it. That being, we practiced "Touch" with it until he accidentally rang it. I praised him to the skies, gave him a big treat, and took him out for a walk. And that, my friends, was the last time he ever rang the bell. I tried and tried, but he made sure he never touched the ring-y top of it ever again.
Anyway, book length starter! Any thoughts?
